Under Small Minds
by KevinCarpenter
Summary: Two peace corp members in a Congo rainforest discover a tiny race of cave beings. They become stunned at their existence and their ability to possess average intelligence. One of them wants to make peace with them while the other wants to exploit them for obscene riches. Will the good member triumph or is the bad seed gonna grow in spreading his recklessness?
1. Prologue

**THE TWILIGHT ZONE - Under Small Minds**

In the heavens of space lies a plain, white door. Inside is a hypnotic sphere whose appearance causes a distortion in the various nebulae and planet bodies. First comes the sound of breaking glass, then the eyeball, and the imagery of the theory of relativity. The voice of one Rodman Edward Serling introduces the tale about to unfold.

 _You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is a dimension as vast as space, and as timeless as infinity. This is a region made up of sight, sound and mind where science and superstition are merged with shadows and imagination. It is the center of man's fears and knowledge that bears the moniker of…_

…" _The Twilight Zone"._

* * *

The full moon shines bright on an area lit with a campfire and a tent covering part of the ground. This is a Congolese rainforest several miles outside the capital of Kinshasa. Sounds of birds chirping in the night and various wildlife senerade the atmosphere. Inside the tent are two peace corp members, Bill and Marie. Bill, a caucasian guy had the hots for his African-American partner and was planning on scoring with her.

"Say Marie, I was thinking if these sounds are giving you the willies then…"

She cut him off to show him her bowie knife, "I'll handle it. But thanks for the offer."

Bill cursed himself mentally feeling defeated. He then thought about striking up a brief conversation in hopes of maybe lucking out with this one.

"You know I'm still trying to understand why you chose to settle on this rainforest for our break from services," he said.

"I like jungle settings. They're very peaceful and away from the nuisance of any gizmos," she replied.

"In other words, environmental nutball food for thought," he giggled.

She facepalmed a bit and got out her notebook on her biological studies, "Study a different species - check."

Bill raised his eyebrow, making Marie laugh. He asked, "Hardy har, you thinking I'm some sort of ape?"

"Nah."

He smiled in a potential relief of the wise tricks. However she quickly said, "More like a monkey."

Bill got annoyed and walked out to the fire so that he can check up on the can of beans he was making. They were cooked to the right degree in order for him to eat'em. As he was munching down on his dinner, suspicious sounds came from far away in the distance. Marie walked out on que.

"Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Yea. What was that?" she asked back.

"It's what I want to know."

Rustling in the bushes caused them to startle and draw their weapons. Marie with her knife adding to Bill aiming his revolver. The only thing that popped out was a harmless lemur. They soon breathed a sigh of relief when the lemur crawled back into the bush.

"Thank god, for a minute there I thought we were done for," he said.

Marie chuckled, "Now if you get the willies you know who to call."

"Ah, shut up," he snapped back.

Within the darkness of the woods as the lemur was running back to where it came from was something unknown. Far off was a miniature village filled with tiny people. These microscopic citizens were practically like cavemen who spoke fluent english. They had stick houses along with primitive-looking lifestyles. One named Ezekiel was watching his peers roast some sort of meat on their fire.

"Ezekial! May we offer you some of this heavenly delight?" one dweller shared the meat with him.

"I'm afraid I must decline. For my belly is quite full," he walked away.

Ezekiel looked up at the sky and the humongous leaves around him. The young male had a feeling that an incoming entity was felt around him. To help clear up these confusions, he sought knowledge from a local wise man who lived in a hut in the center of the region.

"O Wise man of our people. I implore you for your guidance! I seek answers on beings that may or may not have come from the dinosaurs."

"You're not the first to speak of such phenomena," the Wise Man pointed to wall paintings of giants.

"What are these?" Ezekiel asked.

"Giants. Violent super creatures that are more menacing that the dinosaurs. My scriptures predict that these two beasts will collide in barbarism where one will lose. Though the outcomes have always been hasty."

"So should I gather up the livestock and put the women folk inside?"

The wise man nodded and pointed him to his homestead. Ezekiel followed to leave the wise man looking back on his paintings. He held a grip of doubt, yet intrigue. What were these visions telling him about this forthcoming collective? Ezekiel walked out to the rest of the citizens practicing their customs. Such included a witch doctor making beads for pleasing his god and one woman putting herself out for the males. Another woman was watering the gardens allowing food to grow. It's here where the unseen force of Rod Serling looks to the outer spaces of his position.

"What you've witnessed were two races both in a state of curiosity and exploration. First were the humans with Brian Kroger and Marie Jones. Two peace corp workers whose holiday was about to get even more surreal thanks to the advent of our second subjects. Enter the Anukari, a small civilization with an existence that defies that of science and rationale. Surely one would be racing with questions if they'd come across this obscure tribe. Though the real question is what would happen if we as humans did discover a different species sharing the same oxygen we breathe. And the answers will soon be revealed as we delve even deeper into the core of this climax yet to come."

* * *

 **TO BE CONTINUED**


	2. Act I

**ACT I**

The morning comes and Marie slowly opens her eyes. The first thing she sees is the silhouette of the smoke from the fire burning out. Though her nose detected a foul stench of Brian starting off his morning with a flask of Brandy.

"Whiskey is for breakfast, Champ?" she asked.

"A man needs his drink on to keep himself entertained," he replied in a rather snarky way.

Marie rolls her eyes in annoyance at his comment. In her peripheral vision was a tiny shadow which ran fast. She began to walk a little further towards some rustling bushes. The peace corp worker moved them a bit to see the small person running in the distance. Brian then walked over to her.

"You alright there, kiddo? Looked like you saw a ghost."

"I… I… don't know. I thought I saw like a miniature animal," Marie tried her best to explain.

"Miniature animals? Pffft" Brian drank. "I think the heat might be getting to you."

"Brian I swear to you that I'm not seeing things. My eyes aren't deceiving me this time," Marie got her sack filled with science equipment. "I'm walking over there to see what I can find."

He loaded his gun, "Hold on there, Missy. I'm coming with ya."

The miniature person in question was Ezekiel who previously was in the midst of a pilgrimage on behalf of the Wise Man. However since he spotted Marie while on his trip, he'd been running back to the village to warn his tribe of what he believed were imminent threats on his people. He'd stop to catch his breath and look back up. His eyes widened in fear once he saw the two humans walking his way.

"Giants! Just like he predicted!" Ezekiel began running for his life.

It wasn't until he first saw the village that he began breathing a sigh of mental relief that he finally made it to give out the warnings. The first place on his list was the hut of the Wise Man who was busy with his daily rounds of meditation. Ezekiel came barging in like a racehorse.

"Wise Man! Wise Man!" he shouted for him.

"Ah! For the sake of the gods, boy! What's the trouble ahead?!" he jolted out of interruption.

Ezekiel tried to catch his breath to rationalize what he just saw. But everytime he tried to tell the Wise Man, he either ran out of breath or lose the will to try and explain this foreign phenomenon to him. The wise man grabbed him by the shoulders to get him to snap out of it.

"Speak, boy! Speak! Calm yourself and try to tell me what it is that's gotten you all frightened," he said.

Soon enough he then began to hear people in the village muttering all at once. The Wise Man walked to the window to see a whole congregation of civilians walking to the outer reaches.

"What is this that's gotten the villagers all shook up?" he asked himself.

He then walked with Ezekiel out the collective to see what was going on. What happened next sent the Wise Man with an amount of disbelief that had almost shattered his mode of reasoning beyond anything possible. Brian and Marie stood over the miniature people who they themselves were staring back at the two workers. Both sides were astonishment and shock over the contrast in different races existing before them.

"My god," Marie was in still astounded. "I can't believe it."

Brian took another sip of his whiskey, "Your eyes do not deceive you. It's a whole lot of little people."

Marie shushed him to avoid any trouble. Ezekiel looked up at them as the Wise Man pulled him to the side.

"Get away!" he said. "Ezekiel, that giant had a huge drinking cup in his hands. Could you imagine if he'd crush you like a bug?"

Though the two could be seen speaking to one another, because of the great difference in height, their banter was rendered inaudible to Brian and Marie. To the humans, the tiny words were heard as a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

"Hello? We won't harm you. We come in peace," Marie tried to communicated with them.

"Forget it, Jonesy. The little guys probably don't understand English anyway," Brian was looking through his backpack. "Thank god I charged this thing on a battery pack."

"What are you doing?" Marie asked.

Brian pulled out his camera phone, "Capturing this on a livestream."

"The hell?"

"You realized what we've come across? Imagine the profits we can make by selling off a story like this about a new found civilization. The papers will be hounding us with wads of cash for this!"

Marie was a little overwhelmed by Brian's offer for she'd been more interested in the scientific intricacies rather than exploitation for riches. Plus she felt that this idea would go against her sense of ethics and morals towards treatment of foreign groups.

"Come on. All I'll be doing is filming. You can do your analysis of the tribe and we won't harm them in the least," Brian offered.

After a minute of some pondering, she thought that maybe this would be an appropriate compromise for the time being.

"Alright. But no funny business."

"You have my word."

As for the cave people down below, then we still bewildered by what the humans were doing. However the lack of any danger gave them a sense of ease that motivated them to go back to what they were doing. A lot of activities ranged from making little fires, telling folklore legends, craving art into the rocks, and refiguring the grass for farming.

"Look!" Brian pointed his camera at snakes, spiders and an assortment of various bugs and tiny predators.

The arrival of these specimens signaled the practice routine of the community to put their emergency defense plan into action. First the children and elderly folk were placed up in the caves to protect. Second the men and women would gather at the barricades surrounding the villages with spears and rocks to hurl towards the beasts. Marie walked over to Brian as he was filming this.

"Aren't you going to go over there and help them?" she asked.

"Looks as though they've got it under control," he replied.

She sighed in annoyance at his lack of caring. So Marie took matters into her own hands by grabbing a machete and killing off the predators for them. The tribesmen cheered in victory with some giving cheers towards her for saving them.

"And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Mankind once again giving it's best to other species," Brian said on the recording since by those around the world tuning in.

Ezekiel by the barricades ran to the hut of the Wise Man to tell him the good news of what just happened.

"Wise Man, one of them giants aided us in our battle against the beasts."

The man had been making beads while relaxing by a little fire he lit in his hut. Ezekiel had been intrigued but wondering if the Wise Man heard him.

"Wise Man?"

"I hear you, boy. I do not doubt your enthusiasm for this development. However don't let your emotions cloud your judgment," The Wise Man spoke.

"Whatever do you mean, Sir?"

"Usually I'd refrain of seeing apocalyptic visions. But I'm see one half of these giants turning our village into fire and brimstone. Using our one defense as a weapon against us."

Ezekiel had been conflicted by what the Wise Man uttered. He began to doubt his knowledge for the first time in his life. Up until now, he'd trust the senior man with omniscience and all that the world offered him. However maybe it seemed to him that maybe even prophets could be wrong from time to time. Ezekiel looked up and saw Marie being amazed by how the young and the elderly were eating together in a communal fire.

"Just amazing that the customs could be bring the young and the old together," Marie said. "It goes to show that maybe there is a degree of civilization in misunderstood cultures."

An amount of thoughts came racing to Ezekiel's head. A degree of anxiety that strangled his rationale without mercy.

 _Maybe these people are as peaceful as they look. Though this Wise Man I've trusted could be wrong this once. Or maybe I'm too blind by their kindness to see the real picture. Am I right? Wrong? What am I supposed to see it as?_

It was here that the young man looked back at the Wise Man, who he himself looked concerned at the boy.

"Ezekiel, you look distressed. Is there something the matter? Anything I can do to ease your tension?" he asked.

Ezekiel sighed, "I'm sorry, but this matter I have to settle on my own."

"Before you go...," he looked back at the Wise Man. "...Please stay safe. Don't force yourself to believe anything you don't want to."

The young tribesmen smiled, "Thank you, Sir."

Meanwhile Marie and Brian continued with their documentation on this new, bizarre humanity they've encountered. Brian began to feel bored due to the lack of any interest he had during the filming. He felt as though something was missing to keep his attention onto the little people. Marie on the other hand, was joting away at her notes. She'd hoped that they would be good enough to tell to her fellow scientist peers pertaining to this new discovery.

"I have to go back to our tent and get some extra supplies. Mind watching over the place while I'm gone?" Marie asked.

"Sure. It's not like anything else is going on," Brian sighed.

Marie walked back a few miles back to their camping site. Brian on the other hand was getting bored in a millisecond with the routines the cave people were doing.

"Why is it that the novelty of tiny cavemen has become boring all of a sudden?" he asked himself.

He looked around at them doing their regular schtick from making cave sketches to their night ceremony of open fires. Brian was craving more drama and action and he needed it fast. The sound of tiny little roars caught his attention to turn his head. On the other side he noticed more beasts coming from the side of the barricades. It was there that Brian began to get an evil smirk on his face. He walked over to the beasts with a piece of meat on a tree stick in his hand.

"Here kitties. Want some food? Go over there and let me see what you can do," Brian pointed to the village.

His grin soon began to turn sinister when he took another look at the gates barring the dinosaurs and spiders from coming in. Brian soon had the most vicious smile at his plan….

 **TO BE CONTINUED**


End file.
